Girls Basketball: Loyola rolls past Queen of Peace

Updated: January 30, 2012 8:49PM

Win No. 20 came in dominant fashion for Loyola on Monday.

The Ramblers’ early flurry of forced turnovers and good shooting catapulted them to an early lead and when they landed, they had a 61-21 win over visiting Queen of Peace in Wilmette.

And when you’re hitting shots and playing hard-nosed defense, it provides one vital intangible for any team:

“Confidence,” Loyola senior Michelle Ricolcol said. “We’re shooting and handling the ball with confidence, we’re playing stronger with the ball, and we’re pushing the ball up and getting good shots.”

The Girls Catholic Athletic Conference tournament win in Wilmette gave Loyola a 20-6 overall record, 7-1 in GCAC play, with five conference tournament games left to play through next week.

Ricolcol netted 10 of her game-high 12 points in a first quarter that gave Loyola a 24-6 lead. The Ramblers led 35-15 at halftime and posted a 16-2 third-quarter scoring edge that allowed coach Jeremy Schoenecker to play every player on his bench.

Lauren Kriz, Anna Schueler, and Maggie Nick scored seven points apiece in the win for Loyola, while Nora O’Malley scored six and Erica Buck scored five points for the Pride, which the Ramblers held to single digit-scoring in every quarter.

“We’ve done a really good job at home of jumping on some teams,” Schoenecker said. “The seniors really want to be in the Saturday night game against Trinity, if we both make it there, and it showed tonight in the way we came out.”

Twenty-win seasons don’t come easy and while the Ramblers are having a whale of a season, they’re hoping for another chance at GCAC rival Trinity, one of the few teams this year to beat the Ramblers handily, 51-29 on Dec. 23.

“It was early in the season so we’ll see,” Ricolcol said. “They played sort of a two-triangle type of defense on us and left three of us open. We didn’t execute and looking back on it we know what we need to do if we play them again.”

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